Here is Your 2010 Marketing Plan

I know you’ve been procrastinating. You should have planned a 2010 Marketing Plan, but you keep putting it off. You keep telling yourself you will get to it soon, but little things pop up and drag you down. Especially with holidays here.

So I want to help you out. I’ve got a skeleton of a plan here. You just need to fill in the blanks. Think of it as an extremely focused version of Madlibs.

So here goes:

2010 MARKETING PLAN FOR_____ (your business name) _____

Objective(s): _____(state one or two measurable objectives, like “Double the size of my email database” or “Increase sales by X%”)_____

Target Market: _____ (Who is your ideal paying customer? What are they like?) _____

Initiatives:

1) First Initiative:

• Marketing Channel: _____ (Choose one channel like events, direct mail, advertising, signage, social media, etc.) _____


• Marketing Message: _____ (Based on this initiative, what one message do you want your target to understand?) _____


• Timing: _____ (When will you do this? For how long?) _____


• Intended Results: _____ (What do you hope to accomplish? How will you measure it?) _____


• Roles and Responsibilities: _____ (Identify who will do what components of this initiative. Do it yourself? Assign it to a team member? Hire a firm?) _____


• Estimated Cost: _____ (How much money?) _____

2) Second Initiative:

• Marketing Channel: _____ (Choose a different marketing channel) _____


• Marketing Message: _____ (Based on this initiative, what one message do you want your target to understand?) _____


• Timing: _____ (When will you do this? For how long?) _____


• Intended Results: _____ (What do you hope to accomplish? How will you measure it?) _____


• Roles and Responsibilities: _____ (Identify who will do what components of this initiative. Do it yourself? Assign it to a team member? Hire a firm?) _____


• Estimated Cost: _____ (How much money?) _____

3) Third, Fourth, Fifth, etc. Initiatives

• Repeat the above for as many initiatives as your resources can handle. This all depends on what you and your business can handle. By all means outline some more. However, if you are just doing this by yourself or if your resources are few, don’t do any more than five.

Not too complicated, right? Sure, we could dig into this even deeper and optimize this for your particular business. So just consider the above plan as your starting point. Now, fill in the blanks and strategize about your business and your marketing message.

I know you can do it. So get off your procrastinating bottom and get planning. Failing to plan is planning to fail!

As you move through 2010, you should be able to understand what is working and what is not. This will really take you to the next level because you will grasp where to best invest your marketing dollars.

Lastly, just a reminder that a good Marketing Plans is S.M.A.R.T. (Strategic, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound). If you really want to move your business to the next level, you need to get S.M.A.R.T. with your Marketing Plan.

So what are you waiting for? Your plan is ready to go. No more procrastinating and let’s get to that next level!